Monday, June 27, 2011

Journal Day!

{unknown photo credit- please let me know if you know!}

I love being a stay-at-home Mom, but there are some days when I really miss being a high school English teacher, too! Most of all I miss the creative writing. For six years of my life, every Tuesday and Thursday, we had Journal Day. At the start of the year, each child would get a journal of their choice (typically a black composition notebook), and we'd add at least two pages per week. Upon the students' arrival in class on they would see a prompt on the board. They could always choose to free-write, but typically the kids would choose to at least start with the prompt and then let their writing go wherever they wished. I had no rules for their journals- they could write about whatever they wanted, and although they did get a grade for completing each day's writing, I never gave them a grade on content. At the end of each journaling session, we'd go around the room and everyone could share anything they wanted- at the least just one word, and at the most, their entire entry. Some kids started by just offering up a word or a phrase- "good day" "sad" "really weird mood" - but as the year went on everyone got more and more comfortable. There were so many days I heard something that then prompted me to talk a child after class. Perhaps the one word they shared sounded a bit off, or maybe they shared a lot, and I knew they needed to talk to someone. I found that it was pretty therapeutic for a lot of the kids. I mean, I know some couldn't care less, but I do know there were more than a few that loved it. And I miss those days, I miss the writing, and the mix CDs the kids would bring it to play during those ten or fifteen minutes. The sound of the pencils on paper, the look of concentration. The feeling when one of my "non-writers" would say, "this isn't so hard after all."

So I got to thinking. And I decided that I'm going to bring back those journal days right here.

And if you'd like to join in, I'd absolutely love it.

Here's how it will work- I'll post a prompt, and then write about it below. You can write on the prompt in your blog (feel free to grab the image up top), then come back here and leave a comment with a sentence or two from your entry, and the link. I know I'd be so honored to be able to read what you write, and I know a lot of others would love to, too. I think this will be a fun way to get a writing community going, and I'm so looking forward to getting to know more of you through your words. All of these prompts come from the notebook I kept in my desk in my English classroom and they come from various places; college writing courses, my own mind, websites, friends and colleagues. I'm so excited to share them here, and bring back the most important aspect of blogging to my blog- writing. I think this will be a neat way to infuse some creativity into our daily lives too, and inspire each other to write a lot more! So, here we go.

Describe a "first" (first date, first lie, the first time you experienced something, first time in a particular setting, etc). Include as many details as possible to paint a picture.

When I think back to my first kiss, it's strange because in my mind a lot of that night is so vivid, but at the same time so much of it has faded with time. What I do remember, though, is in the small, small details. I was in 7th grade, the age when you think you know so much, but in reality much of what you know is clouded by a veil of naivety. I grew up in a town with one middle school, so going to a party where there would be guests (boys!) from another town over was as exciting as exciting got in our small New Jersey town. Like most cliched "first kiss" memories, mine did indeed happen in a basement, and did indeed happen during a game of Spin the Bottle. I can remember the couch (brown, tweed-like), the carpet (green, shag) and the lights (dim, so low). I think back and I recall my friend Caitlyn sitting next to me, my friend Melissa across from me, the circle mixed with boys we had grown up with. And in between them, one or two boys we didn't know. We sat there, and although I honestly have no idea whose house it was, whose party, whose negligent parents...I remember my clammy hands, the smell of the Sunflowers perfume I had hastily applied as a last second decision, and the feeling that maybe-possibly this would be it, this would be my first kiss. A girl whose name I can't quite remember brought out a bottle. It was a large soda bottle. Maybe green. Maybe orange. We all sat there, awkward in our early-nineties preteen-ness. Some with braces. Training bras. Chapstick. The aforementioned perfume bought with allowance money from a drugstore. A classmate named Maria spun the bottle first. I don't remember what happened, but I remember that I was beside her, and I kept thinking, I'm next, I'm next, I'm next. In moments like these, it's almost unreal how you can think back and remember the lump in your throat, damp palms, the unsure feeling in the pit of your stomach. Then, oh! My turn. I spun the bottle, and it spun and spun. The maybe-green, maybe-orange vessel turned and turned, and landed on one of the boys from the town over. Eddie. In that moment my pre-adolescent heart was so vulnerable. Thump, thump, thump. The what ifs ran through my head I'm sure; what if he refuses, what if he doesn't. All of those thoughts in a quick second or two. And then. He leaned over. I leaned over. We met in the middle. So awkward, so clumsy. I remember the kiss being soft. And gentle. And tasting like Trident. And feeling like it lasted for minutes when in reality it was a moment. We both sat back on our sides of the circle with small smiles, although inside I was beaming, my heart doing a victory lap in my chest, feeling like I had won the sweepstakes. I would finally be able to say "yes! I have! I've kissed someone!" when Lori and Amy and Elizabeth inevitably got to talking at lunch. It was one of those memories that almost seems to come straight out of The Wonder Years in how it happened, and it's still funny to me that I can remember it with such detail. Eddie. Trident. That basement. My first kiss.

97 comments:

What a cute first-kiss story. :) It's funny how some memories contain the little details and everything else is sort of out of focus. The further away from a moment I get, I tend to assume it'll be the big picture that I recall, rather than the colour of the sky that day, or the jewellery someone wore, etc.

My first kiss was in a sushi shop, so I probably had bad breath. For shame, haha.

This is a great great great idea! Not just the journal days in the class, or the mix cds you had the students make (which is very inspiring if I so choose to become a teacher, and I'm heading in that direction) but also your first entry. Sunflowers perfume, oh how I remember it. Wouldn't have ever come up in my mind if you didn't name it but as soon as you did I saw the sample bottle in a card cutout. I'm definitely bringing this to my blog(s)!

'I was still high from our bike ride around Versailles the day before, where we lost ourselves in the gardens and ate very chic sandwiches of ham and butter on baguette. We arrived in Milan, pulling into a grand train station early in the morning, with no plans ahead of us except to somehow find our way to our hotel in the middle of the city...'

http://www.classicivory.com/2011/06/27/paris-italy-gelato-love/

Lovely idea, Danielle! This made my morning, being able to sneak a few minutes in to write about this :)

Hi Danielle! I've formed a little project on my blog where bloggers are sharing little things that make them happy, and i've been asking my favourite daily reads in particular to find out one tiny thing that brightens their day. I'd just love it if you wanted to take part!

All the detail made me think of my first kiss, when I was 16, in my front yard...but it was less gentle and Trident-y and more like kissing a mop or an overzealous dog. It was horrible. I almost cried. haha!

I really like how you dealt with creative writing in the classroom and the idea of those prompts and mix CDs. Sounds like it created a really nice and comfortable atmosphere. I'm going to be an English and Spanish teacher here in Germany and I am definitely going to use that :) Thanks for sharing :)

hey danielle :) Im an elementary school teacher and I totally understand the importance of journaling. I encourage my students to journal every day, but I really like this twice a week idea. I totally understand the feelings you mention while watching your students work. Its so great to hear those pencils, see those faces, and find that they are actually having fun with it!

This is a great feature, and as a lover of writing myself, I'm super excited to participate! I think Id like to write about it on my blog and paint an actual picture of it in my sketchbook! I'm feeling so inspired! :D It would be fun to do sort of a link up so I can read the other bloggers responses, but that is totally up to you!

This is perfect! This sounds like a project right up my alley! In sixth grade and tenth grade I can remember writing in composition journals for about ten minutes each day. It is so fun to go back and read everything and see how much I've grown! I look forward to participating! <3

This is so cool! I teach English at a Language Center in Brazil.. and my students hate it when I assign any piece of writing.. maybe I'll give your idea a try! It should be fun!Also, I immediately felt like writing again.. it's been ages since I sat down at my desk and wrote anything.. Maybe I'll join your journal too..

English was my favorite subject in school (and my major in college). Often times when I think back on my college classes, the one I miss the most is my create writing class. I'm hoping to participate in your in journal prompts. : )

I love your blog! I choose the participate in the this blog series because I LOVE writing. here is a portion of my blog post:

I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was sitting my backyard hanging out reading a book. My dad was sitting next to me reading the paper. He peeked over his paper and said the words. The words that changed my life forever. I did not want to. I told him no that I wasn’t ready to try my hand at being behind the wheel. I would get my chance when I took drivers education in the fall. I didnt want to try before then.

aww bless, how cute :) it's a lot better than my first kiss.. which i dont really want to go into detail on but perhaps i should..? (involving a boy i really didnt want to kiss me and a park bench)

I've kept a diary/journal since I was 13 (so it records most of my firsts..)- I've posted snippits on my blog, if you'd like to look?

I will almost certainly be taking part in your journal days, perhaps writing them in my diary and photographing the pages :)

I absolutely love what you said about your journalling with your class. I think it's a teriffic idea. I'll suggest it to my sister (who's a teacher)Thanks for inspiration and a nice story to read- told so well!

ahhhhh i miss creative writing SO Much . I am going to be this all the time, this is amazing. Here is a little bit of what I wrote

"The story of the first and only lie I’ve ever told.

I was in 10th grade, he was my first serious boyfriend. Serious as in our relationship went past my usual two week break off point. He asked me if I wanted to go to his house over the weekend, I said I wasn’t very sure about any of that. "

I got goosebumps from this post multiple times! Is that weird? I'm just so, so excited about this idea! I also loved your first paragraph. <3 Thank you for always being so, so inspiring. I'll be blogging my journal on a "first" and be linking back today. =]

This is an adorable story and such a cool idea! I'm really looking for ways to understand what I want out of my blog more and I think the key is to be more personal, without giving away too much. I love this idea, and will be joining you every step of the way. I wrote about the first book I ever read over at my blog, I would love you to read it!

What a great idea Danielle! I'm excited to participate in this series. I love your story of your first kiss. I totally related as my first kiss was playing spin the bottle in our garage!

This broke the concentration of my gaze. "Katie, stop giving me the Indian-Death-Stare. You're looking at me like I did something wrong." He kept laughing. "You look so angry for a little girl who is in trouble."

i love this!!! and such a cute first kiss... sadly a lot better than my first kiss!! :-)

Here's my post: HHMMM… a first… I guess I will write about my first date.. since I was just talking about it over the weekend with one of my good friends. My first date with LD. My high school sweet heart, father of my wonderful LIL MAN, my (now ex) husband and once best friend.

"Throughout the first half of the movie, I couldn't even pay attention. I glanced around the room, at his face, at his hand, at my hand, at the tv, at his hand, at my legs, at my cell phone, at my hand, at the black curtains, at the dvd rack, at his hand, at my hand."

"inside our little tent platform that boasted a tarp for a roof we readied ourselves by camping lamp and a shattered full length mirror. we pinned boutonnieres and hair pieces on one another that ashley and i had made the day before in the sand. i wore a crocheted white sun dress. craig's shirt belonged to his father who had sadly passed away on our summer island just three years before."

"I wore my button up purple-ish plaid shirt and my american eagle jeans. I looked hot! or so I thought, in all of my sixteen year old glory. There was a thump on the door- he was here! I spritzed a little more of that cheap perfume and flew out the door."

What to say? Where do I start? Reading a magazine. No, that’s no help. I don’t recognize it. Nothing I’m familiar with. This is ridiculous. I can’t just start talking to this guy, he just wants to get his day overwith – I can see that. This train ride is an annoyance, a stumbling block to get to the next thing."

"Then almost in a trance I felt myself stand up and thats when I realized my legs had turned into jello and my stomach was infested with butterflies. I remember stepping up to the stage and I felt a buzz in the air and every hair on my arms stood on end as I opened my mouth to speak."

Thank you SO much for sharing this really cool idea with us! I felt so non-creative today, up until I read this post. I just finished posting my response to your prompt. Thanks for getting my creative juices flowing! =)

"It was March 6th of 2009 and I was on the freeway, in a car with my dad, headed to John F. Kennedy International airport to meet the man I would marry. . ."

If you had been my English teacher you would have been my favourite. As it was the English teacher I did have was my favourite. :) :) Thank you so much for this! Very cool idea, both in the classroom you hosted and now on this blog you host. <3

Here's a snip:

At any rate, I could be remembering the details a bit incorrectly, but I think we cut our afternoon classes one day (I know! For shame! :D lol!) and headed into the city to go shopping. We'd all decided to visit this little book shop downtown that I'd never been too before as living outside of the city I hardly ever got to go shopping anywhere. Sad I know, in high school and no mall to hang out in. ;)

What a cute story :) And thanks for the writing-prompt idea! This is going to be fun!

I decided to share a post about the first time I moved away from home ... at the tender age of almost-25 (yeesh!), the depression and loneliness I experienced, and how I overcame it:http://lifeinbeta.com/2011/06/27/journal-day-1-first/

"In a fuzzy blur, I remember running out of the hospital, barely making it two blocks before I collapsed on the corner of an intersection. Scott was holding me up as we tried to catch a cab through our tears. We ended up on the corner for half an hour. Him standing in the street, me wailing on the curb, the trees blowing with an autumn breeze, the sun shining down on us. My parents both called in excitement to find out how our appointment went..."

Ah how cute!! My first kiss was so not that cute, lol. I still have a notebook from when I was in elementary school and we did something like this and did creative writing. It makes me giggle when I read it. :D

I kind of did it- Today my son is one month old so I wrote a letter to him describing his first month. :D I'll warn you though, apparently it's a tear jerker, haha. http://codyandcatmills.blogspot.com/2011/06/happy-1-month-darius.html

I teach English too--thanks for the mix CD idea. When I was teaching dance I'd have the kids do that for warm-ups... why didn't I think of it for journaling? Great blog idea too. Question (from a teaching perspective): Do you have a source you use for prompts? Or are they just things you've collected/thought of over the years? I have a hard time finding good ones for high schoolers that aren't too juvenile. Any resource you have, I'd love it if you'd pass it along (I'm email-able).Merci!

Hi Danielle! I am a fairly new reader - I found you through Gussy I think. I think this is such a fun idea!! I'm no writer but I'm really excited about it. :)

Here's my little snippet:

But as my mom and I pulled out of the driveway in our huge blue Aerostar minivan, about to embark on our journey to good ol' Wisconsin, I turned around in my seat to see my dad galloping across the yard with my three year old sister in his arms, a smile in his eyes and in his eyebrows, waving to me with all his might. And in that moment, I didn't want to go to camp. I wanted to stay home with my dad.

here's the link!http://pointsies.blogspot.com/2011/06/first-time-going-to-camp.html

Absolutely love this idea, hope there are many more to come! My little snippet is as follows:

"The second photo is from High School & I'm in my first uniform - a blue skirt, white shirt, blue striped tie & blazer - all at least one size too big! I can't believe how long my skirt & most importantly my tie was either! By the time I'd been there a year it had gone from about 10 stripes long to only 3. I remember spending time getting it right every morning so it wasn't too long to be geeky or too short to be overly cool. I was a true inbetweener!"

So happy you are sharing this creative outlet with us! It's just what i needed... as i am starting my blog.

"When looking back through my pictures to refresh my memory on some of my firsts.. i realized i haven’t had a first in a long time! That’s kinda sad. Either I’m boring or i experienced a lot at a young age. Anywho… One of my favorite first was my first San Diego road trip in 2005. I will forever remember this trip."

wow this is such a great idea! I really can't wait for the next one :)

I decided to write about the first wedding I ever attended: "My sister had always wanted a sort of fairytale wedding and I was one of two bridesmaids. We got out the car and my Dad walked Tai down the aisle. She looked so happy and I realised I had fallen in love with weddings. Finn and I walked right behind Tai and my Dad and stood right by her for the whole ceremony." Here's the link to the whole post: http://justagirl-skippy.blogspot.com/2011/06/journal-day-first.html

I LOVE the idea of journal day. I look forward to participating in more of these.

Snippet - I dug out my favourite grey checkered trousers and grabbed my new green shirt from the wardrobe. I spent a good 15mins looking at myself in the mirror, 'Did I look okay? Would I fit in? What if I hated it as soon as we arrived?' I was attending my first gig, the idea filled with me nervous excitement, it was a big deal.

Thanks for doing this, Danielle! Such an awesome idea. You sound like an awesome teacher, by the way :)

Here's a snippet:

"Turning 16 meant one thing to me at the time: Driving. And I couldn't wait. Just like a little kid eagerly counting down the days until Christmas, I crossed off the days on my calendar and went to bed as thoughts of a driver's license and a set of keys danced through my head."

"Vito sat behind me in Italian class when I was a Sophomore in high school. He was a Junior, who wore a shirt occasionally that said “Italian Stallion” and pitched for the baseball team. So obviously I thought he was the man of my dreams........"

LOVE this! This is exactly what my high school AP English teacher (Mrs. Sandberg!) used to have us do! I still have those old journals and I re-read them sometimes and remember exactly how it felt to be 17.

Such an awesome idea and I adored your "first" story. My first kiss was from a boy who had asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes because I didn't want to be mean. He kissed me without my permission.

In my journal entry I posted about my first day of swim practice. http://justlittleash.blogspot.com/2011/06/journal-day-first.html

I love this! Thank you!!! Your first story was great, thanks for sharing!

Mine is about my first date but won't publish until Saturday, as I'm a little behind, but here is a link to my blog and an excerpt:

www.schmootz.blogspot.com

M soothed and coddled Barfy McGee who was somewhere between sobbing and threatening to sue the restaurant for food poisoning. K removed her top layer, using her long sleeved shirt to lovingly clean me up while I sat, motionless and numb, willing myself to fall into a black hole and be lost in time and space.

I was browsing the internet for web sites related to cheap perfume and I came across yours. Anyway, it's nice dropping by your blog site.Perfumes have a unique effect on each individual. A scent that may smell gorgeous on one person may smell somewhat different on another person. This is because people got different skin. Together with the body’s chemistry, a fragrance may smell sensational or hideous.

Neat idea! I will follow it but in french since I'm a better writter in french but I will post translated story some times to times. Now a first! Got so many in 43 years! Reading the comments I pass through a lot of them but the most amazing one was adopting my fisrt pet! My ferret is still in my mind every day since her death 18 years ago. She was my friend, my confident and my joy! Love you always Kinou